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Anjalee Buwanekabahu

Professor Lookholder

SOC 001 51254

07/13/2017

Analysis of The Big Flush Through a Sociological Perspective

This video is an excerpt of an episode titled The Big Flush in the comedy cartoon

classic Rugrats. Since the 1990s, when it was first aired, the Rugrats has been a well-known part

of most individuals childhoods. The story stars six babies: Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi and

Tommys baby brother Dil and their ever-amusing imagination and wild-antics. Tommys

cousin, who is a much older toddler, named Angelica, is the antagonist of the series and tends to

frequently bully the rugrats.

This video shows the ending of the episode mentioned above, where Stu, Tommys

father, attempts to overcome his fear of high-diving. A trip that was initially intended for the

babies to learn swimming, turns out as an opportunity for Stu to prove himself to his best friends

as well as the crowd of individuals who believe that he could never attempt the dive. At the high-

dive, Stu becomes petrified about jumping off. The babies, believing the pool to be a huge potty,

attempt to flush the pool. They then spot the low-dive plank which they believe is the flusher,

and clamber onto it attempting to, as Tommy puts it, jiggle the handle. In a desperate attempt

to save his baby boy, Stu jumps off the high dive and saves Tommy before he falls into the large

pool. Stu overcomes his fear of high-diving, while Tommy and the babies are gathered safe and

sound.

Auguste Comte, Karl Marx and mile Durkheim are popularly identified as three of the

greatest, and most influential, contributors to the field of Sociology. If the The Big Flush was
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viewed by Auguste Comte, he would interpret it in the light of positivism. Out of his three

stages of positivism: Theological (the belief that all social and physical contexts were presumed

to be the resulting influence of supernatural forces), Metaphysical (where a force was identified

to be the contributor to the worlds events) and Scientific (the understanding that scientific

reasoning was in fact the developer of the social and physical worlds), it is evident that Comte

would use a Scientific lens when analyzing the social setting of this video. The videos social

environment revolves around a public swimming pool. Stu, would be considered as the

individual experiencing a change in social order. He is not a part of the surrounding group of

individuals who, anticipate his jump and, are in fact experienced swimmers. Stu was able to

identify the rules of how to swim from amateur lessons acquainted by his best friends. Stu is a

sociologist surrounded by experienced individuals, and attempts to discover the true laws of

swimming that would permit him to become a better swimmer, and consequently enable him to

not encounter fear of the high jump.

Karl Marx is well known for his theories with regards to the Conflict Paradigm, which

states that society as well as its constant changes, are a result of the constant imbalances in

societys overall social structure. Marx would analyze this video and view the immediate

imbalance in dominance and authority in this setting. The imbalance between the individuals

who can and cannot swim is clearly seen, and Stus swimming skills are considered to be of a

lower standard than that of the other members. When Stu stands atop the high-dive shivering

with fright, the other swimmers chant Jump, finding some sort of amusement in his fear,

despite acknowledging the fact that Stu is less skilled at the task at hand. Marx would view this

conflict in regards to proficiency; while Stu struggles to fit into the swimming community, the
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rest of the members at the pool who are much more proficient class in swimming, use their

power over Stus incompetent swimming abilities and fears.

mile Durkheim is identified as one of the founding sociologists of the Functionalist

Paradigm. When analyzing this video, Durkheim would emphasize that the society presented in

this video are indeed a sum of their individual parts. The lifeguard, as well as the members of the

pool contribute to forming the equally balanced system that Durkheim would predict. The social,

as well as the cultural roles and functions, portrayed by every member in that swimming

community, as well as certain rules and regulations that exist, promote an equilibrium in the

system. Stu, Durkheim would mention, is also a part of this swimming community since he too

attempts to avoid a social dysfunction in the swimming society he is currently partaking in, by

overcoming his fear of the high-dive as well as his fear of swimming, to maintain the systems

balanced equilibrium.

I believe the most prominent paradigm portrayed in this video is the Symbolic

Interactionist Perspective, which basically states that individuals act according to their

interpretation of symbols, such as spoken words. Moreover, this enables the subject to

acknowledge a meaning through the symbol, and conduct actions that correspond to the world

around them. In this video, Stu is stimulated to attempt something that hes terrified of doing,

due to the fact that both his best friends as well as the individuals in the pool chant Jump.

Moreover, he is torn between following the norms of his environment and following his own

judgement. However, seeing his son about to fall into the water, stimulated his fatherly instincts

and clouded his fear. Despite the fact that he knew it was dangerous for him to attempt the high-

dive without much experience, and even though he was encouraged to jump by his peers, seeing
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his son in danger was what stimulated him to take the jump, and also thus further embrace his

role as a father.

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